Speaker 1: Welcome to Made by Women by the Seneca Women Podcast
Speaker 1: Network and I Heart Radio. At a moment when businesses
Speaker 1: face some of the biggest challenges in recent history, we
Speaker 1: bring you inspiring stories, practical insights, and shared learnings to
Speaker 1: help you successfully navigate in today's environment. I'm Sharon Bowen,
Speaker 1: and thanks so much for joining us today. Among the
Speaker 1: legends of basketball, Tamika Catchin's stands tall one of the
Speaker 1: greatest players ever. Besides playing forward for the Indiana Fever
Speaker 1: for sixteen seasons, she's also won four Olympic gold medals
Speaker 1: and just this month, she was inducted into the Basketball
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. Since we'retiring from the game and two
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen, she's also become an entrepreneur, the owner of
Speaker 1: Teese Knee Cafe and Indianapolis. But that's not all she does.
Speaker 1: She has also director of Player Programs and franchise Development
Speaker 1: for Pacer Sports, an ambassador for the w n b
Speaker 1: A and n b A, and a sports commentator. And
Speaker 1: she has a philanthropy that Catch the Stars Foundation, which
Speaker 1: helps disadvantage young people achieve their dreams. We want to
Speaker 1: learn how she blends business with purpose and community with commerce.
Speaker 1: Please enjoy my conversation with the remarkable Tamika Catching. You're
Speaker 1: one of the all time grades of basketball. Over your
Speaker 1: sixteen year career, you gave so much to the game
Speaker 1: and to the fans. What DoD Basketball give to you?
Speaker 1: What did basketball give to me? That is a good
Speaker 1: question today. A lot um. You know, I was born
Speaker 1: with the hair indus ability, and so just as a
Speaker 1: little girl, I just remember getting made fun of and
Speaker 1: low self esteem, self confident, just a lot just you know,
Speaker 1: wanting to blend in and blend in the wall as
Speaker 1: much as I could just do, not stand out. But
Speaker 1: I think sports in general gave me a voice to
Speaker 1: gave me a platform. It definitely gave me confident, taught
Speaker 1: me about uh, teamwork and leadership and a lot of
Speaker 1: different things to truck allow me to travel across the world.
Speaker 1: So just gosh, amazing opportunities. That's great. Would you say
Speaker 1: was there something special inside you that made you such
Speaker 1: an incredible player, like one thing specifically, Well, I would
Speaker 1: say definitely the determination and kind of like just people
Speaker 1: telling me what I wouldn't be able to do and
Speaker 1: that I would never be able to accomplish things. It
Speaker 1: gave me the drive to succeed, and I think through sports,
Speaker 1: and really basketball played soccer is my first board, Softball
Speaker 1: was my second. In basketball, that's my third s board
Speaker 1: in third grade. And it really just gave me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I gave me the drive. Like I knew I could
Speaker 1: practice and practice and practice, and if I practiced and
Speaker 1: got really really good, then you know, in the playground ball,
Speaker 1: you get picked on the teams and you get a
Speaker 1: chance to play, and then obviously beyond that getting picked
Speaker 1: to play on AU teams and travel basketball and USA
Speaker 1: basketball and in so many different areas well. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you were great at those other sports too, but I'm
Speaker 1: glad that basketball chose you for sure. So in two
Speaker 1: thousand and sixteen, you retired and became an entrepreneur, the
Speaker 1: owner of Tease Me Cafe in Indianapolis. How did that
Speaker 1: come about? Oh? If I could tell you, Shanon, I would,
Speaker 1: but it just kind of happened, you know. In two
Speaker 1: thousand and five, Um, one of our fans, one of
Speaker 1: our favorite fans, came up to me after a game,
Speaker 1: which is like, Hey, I heard you like tea. You
Speaker 1: should tell you should go try out this check out
Speaker 1: their tea play and Indy, and it happened to be
Speaker 1: right around the corner from the arena, and so ended
Speaker 1: up becoming one of my favorite places to go and
Speaker 1: favorite places to just relax. I mean, I would always say,
Speaker 1: tease me with just kind of like it was an
Speaker 1: oasis away from the world and you could just go
Speaker 1: and doon as you walk through the door and just
Speaker 1: kind of like, I don't know, it was just the
Speaker 1: place that you just felt secure, you could go and
Speaker 1: just get away from everything. And two thousands sixteen, after
Speaker 1: I retired, ended up having a meeting there and one
Speaker 1: of the gentlemen that I was meeting with, I was
Speaker 1: just telling, my gosh, every time I come here, it's
Speaker 1: like it's always the same as far as the way
Speaker 1: that I feel. I love being in the space, and
Speaker 1: he was just saying, well, better come as much as
Speaker 1: you can, because, uh, they're about to close down. Wayne,
Speaker 1: who was the previous owner, him and his wife were
Speaker 1: moving and they didn't know what they were gonna do
Speaker 1: with the cafe. So one thing led to another. Couple
Speaker 1: of months later, ended up taking over Teesnee Cafe and
Speaker 1: February seventeen and haven't looked back since. Wow, that's great.
Speaker 1: So it sounds like you found it and it found you.
Speaker 1: So tell me a little bit more about Teesney Cafe
Speaker 1: and the kinds of products yourself. Well, we sell tea.
Speaker 1: We are a tea cafe, so it tease me t
Speaker 1: a apostops and then me cafe Indies. We actually just
Speaker 1: opened up our second location, tease me Community Cafe, uh
Speaker 1: April one and imagine on April Fool's Day. Yes, but
Speaker 1: but it's great. You know, we sell tease. We added
Speaker 1: coffee to the menu so that you don't have to
Speaker 1: you don't have to make a start distinction, or you
Speaker 1: don't have to make a choice. You can have tea
Speaker 1: and coffee if you want to. We have sandwiches. Were
Speaker 1: open from nine am to three pm. And you know,
Speaker 1: the thing that I'm probably most proud of is I'm
Speaker 1: proud of the space for the community and the diversity
Speaker 1: and the people that come and and get a chance
Speaker 1: to hang out a nurse bay. But then all of
Speaker 1: the events that we have, we have events in the
Speaker 1: cafe uh pre COVID. We'll hopefully get back to that,
Speaker 1: you know, once we get through COVID, but we have
Speaker 1: events in the space now. All of our events are virtual,
Speaker 1: but they're really about bringing the community get together and
Speaker 1: you know, being able to provide a space for people
Speaker 1: of all ages to be able to come and and
Speaker 1: just hang out. And you know it sounds to me
Speaker 1: you just describe that, you tease me. Cafe hosts a
Speaker 1: lot of events for the local community, including you book
Speaker 1: clubs and conversations that you help to facilitate. Why is
Speaker 1: that an important part of your business. It's an important
Speaker 1: part just because it's more than just the space, you know.
Speaker 1: I think from my standpoint, one of the things when
Speaker 1: I first got into it, I was talking to our
Speaker 1: our accountant and you know, before before I said yes
Speaker 1: as far I purchased in the business, and he just
Speaker 1: said he's like, look, you're not It's not a money
Speaker 1: you know, like, you're not going to this for money
Speaker 1: to make money. You're going into this because you love
Speaker 1: being able to serve the community. And that has been
Speaker 1: the mindset. And now, of course, you know, you need
Speaker 1: money to in any business to make sure that you survive.
Speaker 1: But I think what had really helped us through the time,
Speaker 1: it's just making sure that we are serving our community
Speaker 1: and that everybody feels a part of what we're building
Speaker 1: both in the cafe, outside the cafe through our virtual event.
Speaker 1: Then you know, people people come from all over, you know,
Speaker 1: through all the different events that we have in Indianapolis,
Speaker 1: through all the different sporting event they're just like our
Speaker 1: convention event that we have coming through. So it's been
Speaker 1: a lot of fun just to be able to serve
Speaker 1: not only Indiana Indianapolis native, but people from all over
Speaker 1: that come to Indianapolis. That's great. So the destination as
Speaker 1: well location, which sounds great. Was it hard for you
Speaker 1: to make the transition to being a business owner in
Speaker 1: We're the parts of your athletic experience that translated well
Speaker 1: to running a business. What did you have to learn?
Speaker 1: That's a loaded question, but but you know, um, when
Speaker 1: I came into it, I didn't go to school to
Speaker 1: be an entrepreneur. And my sister and I we actually
Speaker 1: have our foundation. We have a foundation called Catch the Stars,
Speaker 1: and this is our seventeenth year with that. But even
Speaker 1: when we got to Indianapolis in two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: we started running program programming, and then in two thousand
Speaker 1: and four we finally got the idea like, hey, we're
Speaker 1: gonna actually put this together into a Foundation, and you
Speaker 1: know Catch Starts Foundation was born. So that was kind
Speaker 1: of Neither one of us went to school for nonprofit
Speaker 1: management or anything like that. It just organically happened. And
Speaker 1: the same thing, you know, getting into teeth me and
Speaker 1: really it happened organically being able to step into that role.
Speaker 1: But I will say I run the tea shop a
Speaker 1: lot like you would run a franchise. And you know,
Speaker 1: as far as we have an owner for Indiana Fever
Speaker 1: Assignment family herb and it some time and they run
Speaker 1: our team. So like I'm the owner of Teethley Cafe,
Speaker 1: but I think of all the people that are layered
Speaker 1: underneath him or underneath them for Indiana Fever patient sports entertainment,
Speaker 1: for us to be born and to be able to
Speaker 1: execute on a day to day basis. So it's the
Speaker 1: same thing with the tea cafe, Like, yes, I'm the owner,
Speaker 1: but then you know, underneath we have a general manager
Speaker 1: that oversee both locations now and then underneath them you
Speaker 1: have managers that are at both locations. So like looking
Speaker 1: at one location at a time, you have your coaches,
Speaker 1: and the coaches have players, and you have captains on
Speaker 1: the team, and then it kind of funneled down. So
Speaker 1: I literally try to even when I'm talking to and
Speaker 1: our team meetings, on our teeth meet staff meetings, I
Speaker 1: literally used the same lingo in the language of being
Speaker 1: able to talk about it in a team standpoint, and
Speaker 1: when one player goes down, another player steps up, and
Speaker 1: really just being able to develop all of our players
Speaker 1: and and all of our staff members. I can see
Speaker 1: how that theme of teamwork is specially ingredient to success
Speaker 1: for it for many businesses. We'll be back with senecas
Speaker 1: made by women after this short break. You mentioned your
Speaker 1: foundation to Catch the Stars Foundation can tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit more about its mission. Yeah, so we uh,
Speaker 1: we focused on boys and girls ages seven all the
Speaker 1: way up to eighteen. We provide programming around fitness, literacy,
Speaker 1: and youth development. And really at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I'm very big on goal setting. So a lot of
Speaker 1: the kids that we sort of have not had the
Speaker 1: same opportunities that you know, more more fortunate kids have had,
Speaker 1: and so we try to make sure that we show
Speaker 1: them a different life experiences. We talked a lot about
Speaker 1: goal setting and being be able to have a vision
Speaker 1: for their lives, and you know, through whether through fitness
Speaker 1: and taking care of your body through literacy with reading
Speaker 1: what really important to me is really important to me,
Speaker 1: but especially as a youngster, I love to read books
Speaker 1: and allow my mind to just escape to different worlds
Speaker 1: and youth development really trying to teach your kids about
Speaker 1: leadership and developing them to be strong leaders for the future.
Speaker 1: That's interesting, you know. I also I had a passion
Speaker 1: for reading growing up. I was not good as an
Speaker 1: athlete though, But that's that's what a great role model
Speaker 1: for you and your foundation. So congratulations on that. So
Speaker 1: it sounds like the foundation you use, the foundations and
Speaker 1: some of those skill sets that also helped you when
Speaker 1: you owned Tease Me Cafe. Yeah, I mean definitely. And
Speaker 1: I would say one of the main reasons why I
Speaker 1: said yes to Tease Me initially what to be able
Speaker 1: to hire some of our younger kids that had come
Speaker 1: through our teenagers that had come through the Catcher Stars
Speaker 1: family and really being able to provide them U space
Speaker 1: where they could come and work in a smaller environment
Speaker 1: that would allow them skill set to being able to
Speaker 1: communicate with our customers, you know, being able to serve
Speaker 1: our customers, knowing how to run a business like all
Speaker 1: the entrepreneurial things that they needed to learn. I wanted
Speaker 1: that space to be not wanted. We still do have,
Speaker 1: you know, some young people that work in the space.
Speaker 1: So do catch the stars, you know, really being able
Speaker 1: to kind of plant to see more specifically early on
Speaker 1: looking at sports, but then it's kind of gravitated even
Speaker 1: more so now beyond sports to the youth development aspect
Speaker 1: and really looking at literacy and then adding that entrepreneurs, uh,
Speaker 1: that entrepreneurs peace to do it as well. Gears a
Speaker 1: little bit and talk a little bit about you know,
Speaker 1: it was a tough year for everyone. How did tease
Speaker 1: me do during that time? And did you have to
Speaker 1: pivot and if so, how did you do that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: pivoted the word of and even going into uh, it
Speaker 1: had definitely been It's been the chance, you know. But
Speaker 1: you get into sport because you love the challenge, and
Speaker 1: you get into business. Obviously we would all love the
Speaker 1: business to be great all the time. But I love
Speaker 1: the challenge of being able to be consistent. I love
Speaker 1: the challenge of you know, being able to get customers
Speaker 1: and the marketing and all the different keeping our staff
Speaker 1: and you know, talking I feel like even you know,
Speaker 1: when you look at teams on the basketball side and
Speaker 1: sports and you look at teams from you know, small
Speaker 1: business side, it's almost the same as like what do
Speaker 1: you do to make sure that your team and your
Speaker 1: staff have all the things that they need to be successful.
Speaker 1: I think for us, you know, one of the things
Speaker 1: we had to do, we had to shut down like
Speaker 1: everybody else did early on, and we did have to
Speaker 1: pivot you know a lot of the things because we
Speaker 1: are a small business. We don't have you know, a
Speaker 1: big staff, and so they that we had talked about
Speaker 1: doing that we never had time because we were always
Speaker 1: working in the cafe. We were we now had time
Speaker 1: to do, so we you know, shifted really fast or
Speaker 1: subscription boxers being able to do more online sales through
Speaker 1: our suscription boxes, um really focusing on and targeting in
Speaker 1: on our book t orders so that people could order
Speaker 1: online and we could get them shipped. We could still
Speaker 1: have staff members go into the cafe. We'd only had
Speaker 1: two people that were going into the cafe that would
Speaker 1: fulfill all the orders and get those shipped out. So
Speaker 1: that was one thing. And then as we started looking
Speaker 1: at all right, longevity wise and when we would get
Speaker 1: people back in the cafe, Like what would the inside be,
Speaker 1: what would our capacity be, um looking at outside and
Speaker 1: how we'd be able to serve people on the outside.
Speaker 1: So we looked at a lot of different things, but
Speaker 1: I would say that our main focus would the online
Speaker 1: t sales and really being able to shift focused. Before
Speaker 1: we were we were a business that really if people
Speaker 1: didn't come in the cafe, we would struggle. And I
Speaker 1: think with the change and having to pivot, it's allowed
Speaker 1: us to get two more that like we get online order.
Speaker 1: Even when we're sleeping, we're getting online orders. So like
Speaker 1: that's an area that we've been able to really capitalize on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think companies who were able to do that, um,
Speaker 1: you know, found a way to to grow their cells,
Speaker 1: which is great. And I'm sort of thinking, you know,
Speaker 1: I asked the question about pivot from a number of entrepreneurs,
Speaker 1: but you're the first one who really understands what pivot means.
Speaker 1: As a sports setter for UH, you're in reality, so
Speaker 1: that you should be uh in that way when we
Speaker 1: talked about pivot, what would be your advice for young
Speaker 1: women who want to be entrepreneurs? You know, what's the
Speaker 1: greatest lesson that you've learned that you would pass on
Speaker 1: to them. Build the right team. You know, I think
Speaker 1: first first, before you get to that, I mean, obviously,
Speaker 1: have the vision, have a goal, uh business plan. You
Speaker 1: know a lot of us will have gold and we'll
Speaker 1: go into something it's like, yeah, this is really cool.
Speaker 1: It's like the Grand Scheme and you write it down
Speaker 1: on a pizzure paper and it's like you look at it,
Speaker 1: but that's just the ultimate goal and really being the
Speaker 1: business planet where you're really able to flush out what
Speaker 1: the businesses. So I have the dream, have to go
Speaker 1: write it down. The second thing, build your business plan.
Speaker 1: Make sure that you get the plan together and foolproof
Speaker 1: not fool we can't, you can't a hundred percent guaranteed foolproof,
Speaker 1: but you can have people look at it and people
Speaker 1: that you trust to help you. And then I think
Speaker 1: the third thing is for me, what has made us
Speaker 1: successful is having the right people around the business. And
Speaker 1: you know, I was very fortunate to have you know,
Speaker 1: my really my first employee with Joy Defrance, who became
Speaker 1: one of my friends really fast and came in the
Speaker 1: cafe and literally was the one that helped drive it
Speaker 1: because I had, you know, I was deal with the
Speaker 1: Indiana fever and on my role and in that capacity,
Speaker 1: So making sure you have the right people that are
Speaker 1: part of your team. Is there any one question that
Speaker 1: you wish I had to ask you today or anything
Speaker 1: else you would like to ever blisters here you talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, not really a question. I mean I think
Speaker 1: the one thing that I would probably one thing that
Speaker 1: I feel like drives me every single day. My faith
Speaker 1: is a big part of who I am. And you know,
Speaker 1: I kind of went into the last couple of years
Speaker 1: of instead of setting gold per se, really focusing on
Speaker 1: one word and my first one word that I ever
Speaker 1: had four years ago with impact and really just wanted
Speaker 1: to make an impact on every single person that I
Speaker 1: came in contact with, a positive impact, not a negative.
Speaker 1: I wanted to make a positive impact on every single
Speaker 1: person that I cased path with. And every year, like
Speaker 1: I picked a different word my year, my word for
Speaker 1: balance and really with all the different things that on
Speaker 1: my plate, being able to balance it and not I
Speaker 1: mean you're juggling all the time, but trying to find
Speaker 1: a consistent balance to be able to succeed in all
Speaker 1: the different areas and I'm married, so to be able
Speaker 1: to spend some time with my husband and try to
Speaker 1: get as close as I can to the work life balance.
Speaker 1: So I don't necessarily think that a question. I think
Speaker 1: it's more of one of those things that you're diving
Speaker 1: down this path, you know, really being being an alignment
Speaker 1: with your purpose and and figuring out what are the
Speaker 1: things that that gives you purpose. And you know, definitely
Speaker 1: I feel like the thing that give it purpose also
Speaker 1: aligned with something that we're passionate about, so that help
Speaker 1: purpose and passion, you know, help can't help with leading
Speaker 1: to success. You're speaking our language of cynical women. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: that's stuff. That's that's definitely what we're about. And I'm
Speaker 1: gonna thank you so much for spending the time with
Speaker 1: me today. Really enjoyed the conversation. Sation. Would hopefully I'll
Speaker 1: get a chance to meet you in person one day
Speaker 1: and maybe over a cup of tea, which would be great.
Speaker 1: I would love that. I love that come to Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: We'll have some tea from tes amazing the great to
Speaker 1: make it catchins definitely knows how to pivot and to
Speaker 1: do it with purpose. Here are three things I took
Speaker 1: from that conversation. First, there are many ways to look
Speaker 1: at a business to make it looks at hers is
Speaker 1: a way to make a positive impact on her Indianapolis community.
Speaker 1: She's made Tease Me Cafe into a local hub, a
Speaker 1: gathering place, a space for events as well as a
Speaker 1: training ground for young people. Second, to make a learn
Speaker 1: from her basketball days. The team works a path to success.
Speaker 1: Build the right team, she says, Surround yourself with the
Speaker 1: right people and communicate your big A vision to them. Finally,
Speaker 1: always be ready to make the pivot. The pandemic forced
Speaker 1: Tamika to rethink her business. It went from being one
Speaker 1: that relied on in person business to mainly online operation
Speaker 1: and that's been good. As she says, now the business
Speaker 1: gets orders even when the staff is sleeping. Made by
Speaker 1: Women is brought to you by the Seneca Women Podcast
Speaker 1: Network and I Heart Radio, with support from founding partner
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